Tag Archives: library

I set myself a little book reading challenge this year and I’ve exceeded my own expectations! We’re now in November and I’m set to read 2 more books before the year’s out, making me 3 over my goal! I’m really pleased with this because in simple terms, it means that I’ve rekindled an old habit and hobby of reading actual books.

My ‘want to read’ virtual pile

When I come across one that lures me in online, when I’ve seen one recommended by someone else online or in real-life, or if there’s one to read for one of the book clubs I take part in, I pop it in my GoodReads ‘want to read’ virtual pile and then I add it to Amazon to my ‘save for later’ pile. You could say I’m getting a little obsessed with reading again and that the reading bug has bitten. Which is great!

A library lesson learned

One of those ‘on a whim’ reads that lured me in was ‘Perfect Death’ by Helen Fields. Now, I borrowed this one from our local library and got a bit lazy about renewing it. So lazy that I found it had been reserved when I went to renew. Not one to go and buy a book when I’m trying to stick to borrowing, I duly returned it and re-reserved it! But there are (or were) 4 people in the queue, potentially a 12 week waiting list because you can renew them 3 times, for 3 weeks at a time. You might think I’m a little crazy and why on earth don’t I just buy it? Well possibly because I’m a little stubborn and annoyed with myself and also because I’ve got lots of other books on my list to read. Did I log on to my library account or pop down there in person? Well no actually… and this situation got me to thinking about the pros and cons of borrowing from a library:

The books are free! (unless you get a fine!)

You get the feel-good factor of doing something for the community by helping to keep your local library running. It’s the whole library experience.

The author/publisher still gets their royalties.

The anticipation of your reserved book being ready for collection.

You’re under more pressure to read regularly to avoid the pitfalls I’ve outlined above of having to return your book!

…and 5 reasons not to use your library…

You have to read in a given time-frame which might not always suit because sometimes life just gets in the way.

If it’s reserved, you can’t renew your book (looks shiftily at her feet).

It’s not your book to keep and put on your ‘read’ shelf or to lend to a friend or get the feel-good of giving to a charity shop.

You don’t get the just bought from the bookshop/just delivered to your door fuzziness.

Your reading habit could become a semi-expensive habit!

~

So there are pros and cons but do the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa?

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A new chapter in our reading journey

Just last week, we returned some books to the local library (mine and our 8yos). I love visiting the library with her. I always have. It literally opens up a whole world of imagination.

On this visit though, she said she was running out of books to read. She’s read all the Rainbow Magic books, all the Harry Potter books and various other series. So, we asked the nice man behind the desk what level would be suitable for a fluent nearly 9 year old to read. And we were shown the Teenage Junior (TJ) shelf while being told to leave the Teenage Advanced (TA) section for now. I could almost feel our daughter’s disappointment as she looked at the 4 shelves of the TJ section. Not many books there when you’re used to browsing through what seems like a whole world of imagination. Still, we can order books in from other branches and I’m sure they’ll have some sort of reading challenge to keep her going through the summer.

Magical memories as we enter a new phase

While she browsed, I sat on the little toddler seat next to the board books and had a little think to myself. The days of reading out loud to her, the same books over and over and over again came to me. The days of her sounding out her first school books, learning phonics and learning to blend the sounds. Magical memories.

We still have a bedtime story and I’ve recently got the reading bug again and started reading actual books again – partly for my own relaxation but partly to encourage her to continue. With all the distractions in our childrens’ lives, reading can easily be put on the back-burner. So at bedtime, because she now reads chapter books with few (if any) pictures or drawings, we only read a couple of pages. Her school has a 20 minutes a day reading challenge. She easily manages this because she reads at breakfast too but we incorporate into her bedtime routine, which I love and so does she. So after I’ve read 2 pages and kissed her goodnight (on her still oh-so-soft cheek) and showered her with a hundred kisses all over her beautiful face, I give her 20 minutes. She often uses this time to read to her teddies and role play. She clearly needs this little bit of time to process the day. Long may it continue.

Times to cherish

Then we often have the panic of her losing her unicorn bookmark among her duvet and the handful mountain of teddies. It’s the one she cut out from a template in a magazine. There are 2 others but it has to be the unicorn one. Eventually, all is still and I often pop up to our room for something and can hear her little voice being narrator. It’s these times, after a busy day, that I cherish and I never want to end. But I know they will.

Until they end, I’ll continue to indulge us both in a quick read and then let her enter her own world with her teddies, the characters from the book and feed her imagination as she slowly drifts off to her dreams for the night, wherever they may take her.

Has your child run out of reading material? Do you use your local library? I’d love to kmow! Comment below or tweet me @AllSortsHere .

Our little girl has a love of books and was really excited to browse the books at her school’s week of hosting the travelling book fair. She had been promised a new book from us and after a quick perusal of the shelves, made a bee-line for What the Ladybird Heard Next
by Julia Donaldson.

This surprised me a little because she tends to be much more into chapter books than picture books these days. She even got a new book storage cushion for Christmas!

It must be the very clever rhymes and therefore the rhythm of Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len’s misdemeanours!..

We’ve just recently moved house and joined the local library. With our little girl enjoying reading so much, we were keen to get registered as soon as possible.

The ‘switch over’ from our old library got me to looking at the history of our old library accounts. You might call them ‘the archives’.

You can just about barely (!) see in our little girl’s account that she has borrowed 289 books since she joined as a baby. And that’s not including the books she’s got a home, some of which she has read over and over and over again!

Thankfully, the world of books is still at her fingertips and she loves to go along with us and using the machine to take out and return books.

~

Do you visit your local library very often? What does your child like best about it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below 🙂

*This post contains an affiliate link which means that if you happen to purchase something from the link you click, I get to have a little happiness too! 🙂

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